Current Reads

I'm reading JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy and really enjoying it. She has such a knack for creating great characters, whether you love them or hate them (SIMON).

Yes!  I hated most of the characters in The Casual Vacancy, but I still think it's a great book. I just described it as "you know, like one of those old Russian novels where you hate everyone, but it's still a good book." to someone the other day. The characters are real, weighty characters.

Both The Cuckoo's Calling and The Passion of the Purple Plumeria came in for me at the library, along with an interesting sounding Hour of the Red God. Lots of reading to do!

Has anyone read any of Nevada Barr mysteries? My boss keeps recommending them (we pass a lot of books back and forth) but for some reason I'm not buying her recommendation

Nevada's great! She's a good friend of my dad's, but I also really like her books. They're a series, but I'm not sure it's totally necessary to read every single one in order. Her protagonist is a National Parks Ranger, and she sets her books in a bunch of different parks - Mesa Verde, Natchez Trace (my dad is a ranger character in Natchez), Glacier, Carlsbad...they're a lot of fun.

I enjoyed them, but if you read a bunch of them in a row they can seem to all run together. But Anna Pigeon is a great main character and not just a damsel in distress, and the settings are fabulous.

Mialoubug! As fate would have it, I am currently listening to the audiobook of High Country, excellently narrated by Barbara Rosenblatt. I chose it simply because it is fictional and set in Yosemite, but it's loads of fun. I wish I had discovered Nevada Barr earlier.

On the mystery front, I am also thoroughly enjoying the Agatha Raisin series by M.C. Beaton (Hamish Macbeth).  A lot of the reviews online hate the character for being a rude, ambitious, insecure bitch who is ageing disgracefully but that's largely why I enjoy it. The BBC Radio adaptations (funnier and probably sharper than the novels) and the unabridged audiobooks are read by Penelope Keith, who as ever, has flawless comic timing.

I wasn't sure where to put this, but I'm hoping it's okay here. For those who've read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, her family is finally in control of her DNA.

They still don't get any financial benefit, though. Figures.

That story made me so depressed. It's good to know they've gotten at least patt of what they were fighting for.

I haven't read Henrietta Lacks yet, but I teach advanced high school history and I know a lot of people are using the book in their syllabi. Do you guys think it is too much for high school kids?

I don't think so! There are definitely technical parts, but nothing overtly so. The history is fascinating and incredibly sad -- I really wished for more family input, or even a family member to have co-written the book, especially seeing as the author was also essentially profiting from their family member's story. I'm glad her family are finally in control of her DNA, although I'm disappointed they have no compensation.

Lurker, I think it would be a great read for high schoolers. The chapters alternate between the family stuff and the science stuff, and both sides are very interesting.

There was nothing gruesome or too technical/difficult to understand. I think that's a great book to introduce to high schoolers! Henrietta getting more recognition is an awesome thing!

Lurker wrote:I haven't read Henrietta Lacks yet, but I teach advanced high school history and I know a lot of people are using the book in their syllabi.  Do you guys think it is too much for high school kids?

 I haven't read it yet either, but in the high school where I teach, the students entering AP Biology are assigned it for summer reading.  I've heard really positive feedback from the kids about it.

The summer I read Henrietta Lacks, I was the organizer for an internship program for science and engineering undergraduates. When the students saw what I was reading (I had it with me at a group event), lots of them started talking about the book and the ethical issues it brought up. A high-school group would be a little younger than these students, but if they're taking advanced courses, they would have no problem understanding it.

I agree with everyone else, Lurker. I think it's a fascinating (and infuriating, for anyone who cares about ethics) story and something that I'm sure high school students would find enlightening, especially if they're in an advanced class. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it's something they should read in terms of history and science.

At the time I read the book, I had never heard of HeLa cells and had no idea how important they were and are to scientific research. So obviously I'd highly recommend putting it in your syllabus.

Thanks guys. I may put it on the syllabus for the Spring semester. I might also check with our Bio teacher about some stuff as well.

I'm reading Where'd You Go, Bernadette, which has been entertaining so far. But it's another book where I kind of hate all the characters. Except Bee, who I feel like I know nothing about because so far her narration has been pretty sparse.

I just finished The Fault in Our Stars and enjoyed it. A nice, quick read, and though it was sad, I enjoyed Hazel's matter-of-fact narration.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore was moving along at an excellent pace and had me gripped throughout most of the novel, but the ending was so disappointing. I could respect the message, but after all that mystery, it felt like such a letdown.

Paris, Texas wrote:On the mystery front, I am also thoroughly enjoying the Agatha Raisin series by M.C. Beaton (Hamish Macbeth).  A lot of the reviews online hate the character for being a rude, ambitious, insecure bitch who is ageing disgracefully but that's largely why I enjoy it. The BBC Radio adaptations (funnier and probably sharper than the novels) and the unabridged audiobooks are read by Penelope Keith, who as ever, has flawless comic timing.

I'm not an enormous fan of Hamish Macbeth, but should try Agatha Raisin. The prospect of having Penelope Keith read the books to me is enough to make me look for the audiobooks!

I've just finished The Beautiful Mystery, by Louise Penny, her eight Inspector Gamache novel. The series features plot points that carry over from one story to the next, and now I'm mighty glad I was late coming to this book, because now I have only two weeks to bite my nails waiting for the next one, How the Light Gets In, to be released. (Yes, it's a Leonard Cohen reference. Yes, the books are set in Quebec. Yes, I have the whole series so far lined up to take to my mystery-loving, Quebec-born mother!)

now I have only two weeks to bite my nails waiting for the next one, How the Light Gets In, to be released. (Yes, it's a Leonard Cohen reference. Yes, the books are set in Quebec. Yes, I have the whole series so far lined up to take to my mystery-loving, Quebec-born mother!)

Whaaaat?! That is the title of my YA-novel-in-progress, and it's also a Leonard Cohen reference. At least her audience and mine are going to be very different.

inversed wrote:

now I have only two weeks to bite my nails waiting for the next one, How the Light Gets In, to be released. (Yes, it's a Leonard Cohen reference. Yes, the books are set in Quebec. Yes, I have the whole series so far lined up to take to my mystery-loving, Quebec-born mother!)

Whaaaat?! That is the title of my YA-novel-in-progress, and it's also a Leonard Cohen reference. At least her audience and mine are going to be very different.

Heh, Leonard will be so pleased at all this love!

And hey, you're right: the audiences will be different, the publishers will certainly be different, and by the time yours is out in hardcover hers will be in mass-market paperback in a different part of the store! (I was going to say "hers will be out of print," since most mysteries have a finite lifespan, but then I remembered Louise Penny's stuff seems to stay in print anyway. But the covers will be very different!)

I'm almost done with Thank You, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse. My book club picked it for this month's read and I was excited because I had thought I'd read all the Jeeves books, but somehow I missed this one. I started it last night, blew through most of it, and then about 2/3 of the way through it took a turn for the COMPLETELY RACIST and suddenly everyone is using the n-word and running around in blackface and now I feel really uncomfortable and grossed out.

I finished The Melancholy of Mechagirl by Catherynne Valente and loved it, of course. It's a collection of several short stories and a few poems that involve Japan (some only tangentially). "Fade to White" is going to haunt me for days.

Ahhhh! I just finished the new Ben Aaronovitch book, Broken Homes. I got semi-spoiled on his blog a few days back, I knew that something big was going to happen. But that? I would not have guessed it.

Spoiler:

Now I need to wait a whole year for the next one.